Monday, July 13, 2009

I think that our garden has been slow because of all the rain we have been having and the cool weather, but we will be eating from our garden again in a matter of days!We have some Zuchini and some Papaya pear almost ready to pick and all of our other produce is well on the way too.

My brother buried 2 large holes full of compost last fall and there were some squash seeds from last years produce in there and they sprouted. I told him that he should consider removing the volunteer sprouts so that he had the proper spacing, but he decided to leave them with only 1-2 INCHES between plants. Now normally this is a sure cause of doom, but the compost was rich enougn to not only cause the plants to hang on, but rather to THRIVE! These squash plants are easily 3 feet tall, have the some of biggest leaves I have seen, and they are producing some large sized fruis too!It is really amazing to see, and I have declared that instead of doing thousands of square feet in gardens next year I am going to do a 20 square foot garden full of compost like Jarin.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Below are some of the pictures I took while we were on the famous Battlefield of Yorktown. The Battlefield that made us free.

Replica American Siege Guns. At Yorktown they have replicated the old siege lines from the first line at a mile or so away from the British line all the way to the point blank 1/4 or 1/2 mile line.The famous Redoupt 9. American soldiers stormed this redoupt one night with amazingly low losses.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Our first farmers market of 2009 was on June 21st. It was slow which is not surprising considering that it was Fathers Day.It was kind of interesting that the first market fell on the longest day of the year.I will try to post some pictures of the market once I get some bugs worked out of my computer system.As we were packing up after the market a man ran past us with a security guard right on his heels. I saw that the man was on the phone and I heard him yell at the security guard "let me go!" The security guard was yelling at him to sit on the ground. A few minutes later I saw him sitting down close to where the market had been and a couple of bystabders were by him on their cell phones. I believe they were calling the police because As we were leaving their was at least 4 cops there and one of them was over by the last vender still at the market (I believe he was probably asking the vender for a witness account.)I am not sure what the guy did, but he was carrying a scateboard and it is against the rules to ride scateboards in the mall complex. Most of the time that there are scatebaorders rinding in the mall the guards tell them to get off of them and thats it that, so it is possible that them man was warned and chose to continue riding and ignore the guard.Anyways, I will try to find out what he did and I will update this as I find out.Remember markets are always interesting! It may seem boring for a couple weeks, but then wham! I remeber getting hit in the back by a 20'X40' tent that a micro burst sent flying like it was a kite...

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I am sorry I have not posted in so long.Happy Fathers Day to all Dads!I hope that you all have a wonderful day.Tomorrow Is our first Farmers Market this year. Market Fresh will be held every Sunday till sometime in October at the 29Th Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.Come by and see us!It is late and I still have a lot to do.I hope to post pictures of the market in a day or so.Till then enjoy your gardens and Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there!

On Sep 29, 2008, Calaveras from Kittanning, PA wrote:HELP ME KILL THIS PLANT! I desperately need your advice. It has taken over a full acre of woodland in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and is spreading at perhaps 1000 square feet per year. This is at 2800' elevation, with no rain between April and November, on a slope with a low water table, daily temperatures regularly reaching 100F, and full to partial sun. In a few years it will consume the entire property. Burning is risky in this habitat in the season when the plants are exposed. Is there an herbicide that would be effective? It's way past trowel work. Please reply before an air tanker is required. Thanks!

More below.

girlndocsOn May 22, 2008, girlndocs from Tacoma, WA wrote:This sweet pea grows in the neighborhood and established itself in a crack in the sidewalk by our front porch.I let it grow -- even mowing around it when I cut the grass. I don't think I've ever deadheaded it and I only collected seeds once when they happened to be ripe as I walked by. Nevertheless it's only made about 5 "babies" in 7 years. Each year it would grow to cover about 4' square feet in a loose tumbling mass before frost nipped it back.The only places I've seen it really take over are abandoned spots in alleys and so forth.It sure is tough, though. This year a lawn service both mowed and power-edged right where it was springing up and I thought it was the end, but two weeks later it was back. Now I've moved it to a wire fence in the back of my garden that hides my compost piles.

As you can see this is a very hardy plant. In the first story Perennial Sweet pea has no water for the hardest parts of the year with temperatures often at 100oF.I recommend planting this plant if you have a lot of room to let it take over and said space is hard to get other things to grow on. On the other hand, if you just love sweet peas then just go right ahead and let it take over a large area, because I have seen them take a lot of abuse. I have also heard that old varieties (Like the ones we sell at Life Seed Co and those are Perennial Sweet Pea, and an annual one called old Spice mix, which is a mix of multi colored heirlooms.) have a lot of fragrance to them.

Have you grown Sweet Peas before? How did they do for you? Were they invasive and would you recommend planting them?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Below are some more pictures of our trip to Virginia in 2007 for Jamestown's 400Th Anniversary celebration.

A man gives horse and buggy rides just as they used to in colonial times. Note his British red coat.

Historical Williamsburg is full of meticulously kept formal gardens. Although the picture does not show it this garden had about a dozen such triangles like 5 or so shown.

This young buck was checking us out and moving around quite a bit when I snapped this picture of him taking a peek at us from between two trees.

These are actual cannons captured from the British at Yorktown. On several of them you could easily make out inscriptions with the royal crest. These are only 6 of at least 50 that were on display at Surrender Field. This field is so named because it is where the surrender ceremony took place and the weapons were collected.

I have added a few blogs to the "Blogs I am folowing" toolbar to the right.So please welcomeclay and limestoneOrganic AllotmentTiny Farm Blog» organic vegetable gardening!

I have been reading these 3 for a while and have decided that as they post frequently and the content is good that I shall add them.I owe special thanks to Tiny Farm Blog as they have been sending quite a few visiters my way!

On other news we have had frequent light rains and the garden sprouts are doing good.I am still waging war with the mites and the indoor fruit fly type things that have killed more of my plants than I want to think about.I plan on doing a fairly large post on spider mites soon, but for now that is all.